RIC President Nancy Carriuolo looks on as the Little Free Library is filled with books.

Students at the Henry Barnard School on the Rhode Island College campus have joined an international effort to promote book sharing by creating a Little Free Library site in the school's courtyard.

The HBS Little Free Library is now part of a network of more than 2,500 sites around the world where people can drop off books and take books left by others. The sites are open seven days a week, 24 hours a day. No library cards are required, and there are no dues or late fees.

The goal of the program is to promote literacy and a love of reading, according to its website, www.littlefreelibrary.org.

Lorraine Downes, an art instructor at Henry Barnard School, proposed creating a Little Free Library at the school. RIC alum Steven Beattie '74 donated his time and the materials needed to create the repository, and Downes invited second-grade students to decorate it.

The HBS Little Free Library is a weather-tight box on a pole in a corner of the courtyard, with a plastic door marked with the words, “Take a Book, Leave a Book.”

The students held a ceremony earlier this week to announce the opening of the library, which is available to anyone -- not only students, faculty and staff, but others in the community as well, Downes said.

RIC President Nancy Carriuolo, who attended the celebration, donated one of the first books, The Journey of Cattail, which she noted was written by one of her close friends, Barbara Palmer.